Thank You

Last Christmas my brother the chef gave me son the aspiring chef a professional's knife. It's marvelous. We've never had such a beautiful or useful piece of cutlery. My young chef doesn't make dinner every night so he's given me permission to use his special gift. Meal prep is much easier with a sharp knife. In fact I was so happy with my effiency in the kitchen I wrote Brian a second thank you note. Sure we'd thanked him in January but now months later I was still enjoying the benefits of his gift. So I shared my thanks again.

Twenty years ago when Rod and I were first married and living on a graduate student's budget my in-laws came for a visit. My mother-in-law took me to the store to buy us groceries. We got a cartful! At the check out line she surveyed our haul. "We didn't get any meat." I had purposely avoided the buther not wanting to abuse her generous gift. She insisted and I gave in. Of course Rod and I thanked her at the time and she knew what a gift it was for us. Recently I've had occasion to rememeber this gift. Though it's been twenty years I still recall how grateful I was to have meat on the table. So I told Marie all over again, what a blessing she had been, and still is.

Saying thank you is important. We often remember to do it. We may even go to the effort of writing a thank you note. But do we go back and remember the gift when we are grateful later for the blessings? "Oh they know how we feel. We said thank you already." True, but to remind the giver what pleasure you received from their offering is a delight. Don't you suppose God is the same way? He's given more gifts and blessings than I can count. And sometimes I mindlessly ask for more and more forgetting to acknowledge all I've already received. If I can take the time to remind my brother how wonderful a knife is. If I can remember all over again what a joy steak on the grill was. How much more should I remember God and the abundance He's poured into my life. I am reminded to say thank you. And I want to get very specific. I think God likes it when I've noticed all the blessings in detail. I feel thanks not just from my heart but all the way to my toes. What God has done for us goes that deep, all the way through me. He's saved me. One day I'm gonna thank Him in person.

Posted 12/2/2006 @ 9:02 AM | Weekly Thoughts